Legend Of Grimrock 2 Out This Year, No Early Access

Share this:

It’s been a long time since yesterday, so here’s a quick refresher: Legend of Grimrock 2 is already deep in alpha testing and well on its way to beta. Hurrah! I can’t wait to peel myself off the business end of an ogre’s club only to get re-crushed by a wicked tough puzzle. All of this seems to suggest that Grimrock 2: An Even Grimmer Rock is right around the corner, but apparently that’s only sort of the case. I got in touch with developer Almost Human about release plans and the possibility of an Early Access phase, and here’s what they told me.

First things first: Grimrock 2 will be out this year. Almost Human isn’t ready to narrow down a precise date yet, but expect the game in 2014. Oh, and expect it to be polished – a rarity in these knock-down, drag-out days of constant early access. Almost Human’s main influences are decidedly old-fashioned, as is their approach. So they told me:

“We are kind of old-fashioned and want to release the game in a polished condition, so Steam Early Access is not planned. We are going to have preorders though.”

Can’t argue with that. I don’t hate the concept of early access by any means, but I also don’t think it’s appropriate for all games. Ultimately it’s up to creators to decide, and I think Almost Human is making the right call here. You can only solve a puzzle and explore a world so many times, after all.

Who’s eagerly awaiting Grimrock 2? Is anybody at all upset by this news? If so, why?

29 Comments

You only ever get to have one first experience with a game and you want it to be the best it can be.

I’m eagerly awaiting it and am happy they are skipping Early Access. I think for any games with a narrative Early Access risks ruining the enjoyment of the whole game. For games that are more sandboxy or are strategic/tactical games it can work though honestly all the games I have in Early Access are currently siloed away waiting for a full release to play.

Given the quality of the first game I will do the unthinkable and pre-order it! (A decision I hope I don’t regret!)

I was about to post this exact statement, almost word for word. Even the preorder part.
Or… Did I already do it? Am I commenting on my own thoughts? Have I truly lost it?
Madness aside, I am very excited about Legends of Grimrock 2…. Me too.

Good. I’ve always felt like Early Access ruins the fun for people, like me, who don’t buy/gamble on unfinished Early Access games. I enjoy waiting for a game with everyone else, looking forward to the next screenshot or gameplay video.

But with Early Access I have to be excited all by myself. “I can’t wait for this game,” I’d say. “Oh, yeah I played it. It’s okay, not finished though so it’s kind of crap,” says everyone else. Shut up! I don’t want to hear that! When I look up a game I’m excited about I want to see videos of people talking about why you should be excited too, not videos of PewDiePie screaming overtop of gameplay and TotalBiscuit having very strong opinions about something.

Early Access has killed that nice feeling of looking forward to a game. When everyone is awaiting a release, it’s hype (while maybe unhealthy, hype is at least fun). When I’m awaiting a game everyone has already played the alpha for, I’m just missing out.

Yes! The hype train, for all it’s unhealthy tendencies, is a lot of fun.
A lot more fun than people who don’t understand what an alpha is paying for an unfinished game then calling it a scam, and flinging shit at the developers. And especially more fun than it actually turning out to be a scam and the developers take all the early access funds then release the game as is.

The original was one of those games I had been keeping an eye on since the very first day, since its announcement. I visited Almost Human’s site almost daily, kept hunting the web for more information, previews etc. And that rarely happens to me, with LoG, it was love at first sight.
When it finally came out, it really felt like something special – yes, the combat was pretty much “Just Dance” in a nutshell, but LoG NAILED the Eye of the Beholder/Dungeon Master “feel”, most importantly, its success led to the creation of Might and Magic X:Legacy, which is a grand return to form for the series. We have Almost Human to thank for the revival of dungeon crawlers, they brought that genre back from the dead and showed Western devs there’s always been a demand for it.
Can’t wait for LoG2, I hope they managed to keep the experience relatively fresh by putting some neat ideas in there.

Early access would probably be a particularly bad idea with this game since I got pretty sick of the first one about halfway through. I think that in this day and age, if you’re going to have a bunch of hidden rooms and secrets, you need an at least moderately varied tile set. Identical square rooms with identical square walls have been passé since Bloodwych.

If your a business and or a game Developer, the only way to win respect is to…
DO IT YOURSELF WITHOUT ANY HELP!
Thats what its all about,
NO BEGGING, NO SWAETY PALMS HANGING OUT PLEADING FOR CASH!
Just plain Hard Work!
Well Done Guys this takes normality of working for your money back. For some anyways.

I’ve only ever willingly bought one Early Access title and that was mostly due to the fun I had with its predecessor. But Audiosurf 2 is where I stop. When it first crept onto Early Access it barely had a UI and that really hasn’t changed a wide amount since, though it is (at least) gradually getting better/becoming more user-friendly.